The people Jocko had in mind, or what it looked like at first, were two girls in his apartment up in the Bronx. Colley thought they were maybe hookers, but he wasn’t sure. They were both in their early twenties, one of them a skinny blonde, the other one a skinny brunette. The blonde had pimples all over her face; maybe she was younger than Colley had guessed. They both came into the apartment wearing fake furs. It was snowing outside, but neither one of them was wearing stockings. Just the fake furs, and short skirts, and boots.
Teddy came in a little while later.
“This is Teddy Stein,” Jocko said. “This is the driver I was telling you about. Teddy, meet Colley Donato.”
“Hey, how you doin?” Teddy said, and took Colley’s hand. “Colley, huh? I never heard that name before. Is it short for something?”
“It’s short for cauliflower,” the blonde with the pimples said, and laughed.
“It’s short for Nicholas,” Colley said.
“Colley, huh?”
“That’s right. Colley Donato.”
“How come they don’t call you Nick?” the brunette said.
“How come they don’t call you Abigail?” Colley said.
“What do you mean? My name’s Ginny, why should they call me Abigail?”
“Forget it,” Colley said.
“Why don’t you and Teddy talk a little?” Jocko said. “Girls, come on in the other room.”
“What’s so special in the other room?” the blonde asked, and laughed. But she and the brunette went out with Jocko.
“So you interested in this job, huh?” Teddy said. He was a little shorter than Colley, and a little stouter. He wore eyeglasses, and he was going bald at the back of his head. Colley guessed he was in his late thirties, which was old for a guy doing robberies. Then again, he was only a driver. In this business, Colley found it important to separate the dudes with heart from the ones who only thought they had heart. The dude sitting behind the wheel might kid himself into thinking he was at the center of the action, but he wasn’t. The dude who went in there with the gun, he was the one calling the tune, man.
“I’m maybe interested,” Colley said. “It depends on how it’s set up.”
“Well, I thought Jocko told you all about it,” Teddy said. “No, all Jocko told me was he’s got a pawnshop picked out, and somebody to drive a car.”
“So what do you want to know?”
“Has this pawnshop been cased good?”
“Yeah, Jocko done that himself.”
“When?”
“Two, three weeks ago.”
“How many of us will be on the job?”
“Just the three of us. If you come in.”
“No lookout, huh?”
“Not outside the shop, no. The way Jocko figures it, that’ll be your job. He’ll be at the register, you’ll be at the door, blow the whistle you see any trouble coming.”
“Mm,” Colley said.
“So how does it look?” Teddy said.
“Who’s runnin the show, you or Jocko?”
“It’s Jocko’s job.”
“What’s the split?”
“You got to talk to Jocko about that.”
“You ever do a job together before?”
“No, this’ll be the first one.”
“What’s he promised you?”
“Well, you talk to Jocko about that, okay?”
“If he wants me in on it, I get the same as him,” Colley said.
“That’s up to him.”
“No, that’s up to me. Cause otherwise, I ain’t interested.”
“If the split’s okay, you think you might be interested?”
“It sounds like he done his homework,” Colley admitted.
“Oh, yeah, he’s a very thorough guy. He’s got it all worked out so smooth, it’s almost boring.”
“Boring, huh? You in this for thrills or money?” Colley asked.
“Well, money, sure. What I meant—”
“You ever been busted?”
“Only once.”
“What for?”
“Hanging paper.”
“How’d you get from that to this?”
“I figured if I got caught passing queer checks, then maybe I wasn’t so good at it.”
“How do you know you’re good at driving?”
“I don’t. There’s always a first time, though, am I right?”
“Yeah,” Colley said, and thought Who the hell wants to be with an amateur his first time out? “What about Jocko? He ever done time?”
“Twice. In Texas.”
“What for?”
“Robbery both times.”
Great, Colley thought. I got a punk who never drove before, and I also got a mastermind who’s so good at plotting robberies he’s already been busted twice. This is certainly the job for me.
“I’ll think about it,” he said to Teddy.
That night they fixed him up with the blonde, who was not too bad in bed once you got past the pimples. And the next morning, which was three days before Christmas, Jocko came around with a Colt Detective Special and said it was a present. Counting the blonde, that was the second present. They went out for breakfast together, and Jocko said, “Well, Colley, what do you think? Are you coming in with us or what?” Colley spooned cornflakes into his mouth, and said, “Only if I get the same action you get.” Jocko nodded and held out his hand across the table.
So that was it, that was how it all started. Twelve jobs counting that first one on Christmas Eve, and all of them exactly the same, all of them coming off without a hitch, knock wood. But today the heat was bothering Colley. And besides, this was the thirteenth job. He debated mentioning this.
“This is number thirteen, you know,” he said.
Jocko looked at him and smiled. “Always got to be a number thirteen,” he said. “Less you want to retire after number twelve.”
“I’m only saying...”
“He’s superstitious,” Teddy said.
“I’m not. All I’m saying is if we got to do number thirteen, then for Christ’s sake let’s do it when it ain’t so fuckin hot!”
“Colley, I’m going to tell you something,” Jocko said. There was no menace in his voice, he spoke softly and reasonably. It was just that you could read meanness behind his pale-blue eyes and in the telltale curl of his lip. If Jocko hadn’t become an armed robber, he’d have made a good Texas Ranger. “I’m going to tell you why we have to do this job tonight, okay, Colley? Now, after I finish telling you, you’re free to do what you like. If Teddy and me has to do it just the two of us, him outside and me going in there alone, why then, that’s what we’ll have to do, and no hard feelings, I mean it.”
“Well, you know I wouldn’t let you—”
“I mean it, Colley, there’d be no hard feelings. Man has to do what he wants to do, and that’s that. But let me explain why I feel it’s essential that we go in there tonight. Never mind that we’d have to wait another whole week, we don’t do it now. So we’ll wait another week, so what, waiting a week ain’t important one way or the other. Except, of course, the man may go away on vacation, this is August, remember. But here’s the real reason, Colley; I am being as honest with you as I know how to be. The real reason I want to do this job tonight is because I am stone dead broke. That is the real reason. I am down to the bare soles of my feet, Colley, and I need to get in there and come out with some bread. That’s the long and the short of it.”
“I can lend you some money,” Colley said.